National sympathy in India for the
widow of the sole casualty in the Indian Airlines hijacking drama
grew on Saturday amid reports that she was not even aware her husband
had died.

The couple, who were married on 3 December, were returning from a honeymoon in Kathmandu when the flight was hijacked on 24 December.

Rachna Katayal has now returned to Delhi with the other released passengers, but she is still reportedly unaware that her husband Rupin, 25, was stabbed by the hijackers -
apparently for refusing to keep on his blindfold - and his body
removed from the plane during a refuelling stop in Dubai.

For the next six days, as the plane sat on a runway in southern
Afghanistan, Rachna simply believed that her husband had been made
to sit in another part of the plane.

Rachna returns to Delhi after her ordeal

On the third day of the hijacking, a request from the Taleban authorities in Kandahar to let her leave the plane was refused by her captors.

Very bad shape

A doctor who attended her after her release painted a bleak
picture of her condition.

"She's in very bad shape. Rachna doesn't recall anything and is
only searching for her husband everywhere," Dr RK Sinha said.

"The girl still does not know anything," Rupin's uncle Kanwal
Katyal was quoted as saying by the Times of India after Rachna
returned to Delhi with the rest of the freed passengers.

"We are trying to prepare her mentally, before breaking the news
to her."

Her parents were also reported to be in shock.

"They are still very quiet. We are shattered, completely
broken up just thinking about the poor girl. After all they
have lost their son-in-law," said one of Rachna's cousins.